KVM, virt-manager, etc.

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 09:51:16AM +0100, Soren Hansen wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 10:00:23AM +0000, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > Yes, it does.  However, adding a new component to the installer,
> > testing it and ensuring its robustness (e.g. checking for enough free
> > disk space) seems substantially more complex than doing a network
> > installation (which already works).  Wouldn't you agree?
> 
> I think we're not entirely on the same page here.
> 
> If we want to make the install process a no-questions-asked, background
> thing, it's probably not going to involve booting from the ISO (unless
> there is a simple way to provide preseed files through kvm that I have not
> thought of), but rather some variant of debootstrap + additional
> configuration magic. This is what my vm-builder script does now.

You're correct that this isn't going to involve booting from the ISO, but it
isn't because automating installation from the ISO is difficult.  It's
because there isn't an ISO on the system to boot from.

Think about this from the perspective of someone doing a fresh installation
of Ubuntu.  They boot up the system for the first time, and want to try out
this "virtualization stuff".

> debootstrap can use a local mirror, so what I'm thinking is to add a
> script that can take the CD and turn it into a local mirror for
> debootstrap to use.

And I'm telling you that the place that script would need to run is in the
installer, because that's the only time when you have the CD available.

-- 
 - mdz